China - It’s high time to give Tsai an ultimatum

Even after one year in office, Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen has not given a positive response to the question of recognizing the 1992 Consensus, and this has halted cross-Straits official communications and stalled relations.

Tsai dares not confront the Chinese mainland head-on, and wants to buy some time for "Taiwan independence," so she has chosen to be ambiguous to scale back exchanges from the height of the Kuomintang era but prevent confrontations.

In the past year, Tsai has been busy aligning Taiwan with the US and Japan to create a "cold peace" with the mainland.

By contrast, the mainland has upheld the 1992 Consensus and squeezed the space for "Taiwan independence" by winning more international support.

Without recognizing the consensus, there is no basis for communication. In the past year, bilateral trade stagnated, Taiwan economy headed for marginalization, and investors in and outside of the island became hesitant.

Tsai's policies like the "new invention plan" and "new south policy" will also be undermined soon as they aim at breaking away from the mainland-led Asia-Pacific industrial chain and market system.

The "reform" that Tsai talks about is implicitly geared toward independence. The welfare of Taiwan and the well-being of the Taiwan people are merely a disguise for the reform policies she has advocated to uproot the Kuomintang's political influence and foster her Democratic Progressive Party and eventually achieve "Taiwan independence."

Taiwan people have become disappointed with Tsai. A latest popular poll in Taiwan released on Thursday shows that Tsai's approval rating has plummeted from 50.2 percent when she first took office a year ago to 33 percent now, while the rate of disapproval rose from 16.3 percent to 53.3 percent.

Tsai blamed this on "people's lack of patience," and she would never admit the true reason behind it. 

The 1992 Consensus is a question that Tsai cannot bypass or ignore, and there is only one right answer to it. It cannot be circumvented with ambiguous answers. Tsai cannot make peace with herself if she does not answer the question.

One cannot wake a person pretending to be asleep. Tsai must be clear about the result of insisting on "Taiwan independence," as it will have no good ending. People on both sides of the Taiwan Straits will not tolerate "Taiwan-independence" forces to destroy the development outcomes of the past decades.

Now it's time to give Tsai an ultimatum.